Susan Wallace's Along the Bosphorus describes the conflicts between ancient Greece and the many Middle Eastern empires from pre-history to Saladin, the Crusades and the Ottoman Empire. She moves from myth to history, from the gods of Olympian to the heroes of Homer's Odyssey. She traces European and Asian armies-as they criss-crossed the Hellespont, and then her own modern voyages from 1881 to 1885 accompanying her husband , Gen. Lew Wallace, the U.S. Minister to Turkey, whose friendship with Sultan Abdul Hamid II gave them free access throughout the Middle East. The companion Repose in Egypt chronicles their travels through Palestine to Bethlehem and the Sinai, their lengthy stay in Egypt and their reflections on the politics and personalities of the Middle East and Europe during the late 19th century.